PARIS (Reuters). The French parliament has suspended discussion on a COVID-19 new law at the beginning of Wednesday. Opposition lawmakers sought explanations from President Emmanuel Macron over comments he made about wanting to “piss off” unvaccinated persons.

Macron made the remark in an interview with Le Parisien https://www.leparisien.fr/politique/europe-vaccination-presidentielle-emmanuel-macron-se-livre-a-nos-lecteurs-04-01-2022-2KVQ3ESNSREABMTDWR25OMGWEA.php newspaper published late on Tuesday. Also, he said that unvaccinated persons were “irresponsible”, and that he would make their lives difficult enough that they could get a vaccine.

This interview was made shortly before legislators resumed a discussion over new legislation. It will require people to present proof of COVID-19 vaccine to be allowed to enter restaurants, cinemas, and train stations.

His comments quickly took over the session.

Christian Jacob, a lawmaker from the Les Republicans opposition party told parliament that “a president cannot say such words.” “I am in favor of the vaccine passing but cannot support a text which aims at ‘pissing off’ the French.

Are you aiming for that objective? Without a clear answer, we can’t continue to debate.”

Jacob was echoed by other opposition members who demanded Jean Castex, Prime Minister of France, to meet them. The session was shut down just before 2 AM (0100 GMT), and resumed at 3 PM.

France is home to nearly 90 percent of those aged 12 or over who have been vaccinated, despite having historically more vaccine skeptics than its neighboring countries.

Macron might have anticipated that voters would like his remarks about the unvaccinated, given that a presidential election is coming up in April.

He stated in an interview that he’d like to be a runner again, and these remarks were the number one trending topic on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 France.

Since months people were required to prove vaccinations or have a positive COVID-19-test at all public locations. The government decided to remove the option for testing in the bill because of the rise in Omicron and Delta variant infections.